“Robert Haggart Park is being redone in an environmentally friendly way”

Robert Haggart Park, a pocket park dear to our hearts at the Post-Standard, is getting a make-over.

The park is at North Clinton and West Genesee streets. It’s named for Bob Haggart, who used to be a columnist for this newspaper. Bob died in 1997. We’re close enough to the park so we can watch over it.

Lately, we watched Haggart sinking.

The problem seems to be the park was put together hastily on top of construction filled from the building that used to stand on the site. This is where the Cominsky family ran a restaurant, back then.

We’re told this is a joint county-city redo. It’s been welcomed into Onondaga County “Save the Rain” projects, according to Matt Millea, deputy county executive for physical services.

The park’s been “boarded up” behind a wall of wood all winter. This month, a county crew dug into the park and carted away fill. This week, we’re down to the basic 19th century foundation. The park’s been redesigned by a Syracuse firm of engineering consultants by the name of CH2M Hill and is a piece of the county’s sewer separation project that spreading all over town.

This is tied to the federal consent order dating to the 1990s to stop the overflow of sewage into Onondaga Lake. “Save the Rain” ranges from the rain barrel in my back yard to make-overs in parks, such as Haggart.

The work at Haggart likely will take all summer, but when it’s done, “We’ll have a fully-restored park,” according to Matt Millea.

The new Haggart will include interior canopy trees, landscape planters, places to sit, porous pavement and stormwater planters connected to drains to Clinton and Genesee streets. These we see in designs by Leah Rominger. We’re seeing mounds of sculptured soil and other changes-in-the-works featured across Syracuse and Onondaga County…